Day 43- BUDGET: Christmas Presents

NEW HABIT: Start Christmas shopping on 1st December and schedule it in diary

I like Christmas and I hate Christmas.

I like the decorations, present giving, family get-togethers, music, TV and eating. I hate that every year I have to work really hard and only get Christmas Day and Boxing day off. Because I work for a private household, Christmas ends up being all about my boss and her Christmas. She has a bottomless pit of money and can make it the most beautiful Christmas you’ve ever seen so over the years it has made me a little resentful and Grinch-like in my outlook to the Festive Season.

I want to have a beautiful Christmas too. I know what I want to do and how to do it. The real reason I’m disappointed is that procrastination delays me in saving enough money to fund it and the time to plan and shop for it. Luckily, I have a really small family and only have a handful of people I want to buy gifts for. This year I have not budgeted and don’t have much money to spoil everyone so I have settled for impersonal cash in an envelope. The embarrassment of procrastination!

This new habit I’m going to create should make next year a little more interesting and rewarding. The first part is saving the money up so I have created a goal in the mobile app Money Box to save £500 by 1st December 2019. The app shows me I have to save £10 a week to reach that goal and that is the maximum I can afford. By then I should have enough money to enjoy shopping for gifts for my family. I’m setting up a standing order from my bank account to my savings account to avoid me forgetting or resisting transferring the money.

“I will budget £500 for Christmas presents every year and schedule it in the diary that on 1st December I start my Christmas shopping”